Clearing out the dust rhinos

My, my, my. It's already February, and I haven't posted since Christmas. That's just pathetic. My studio has been sitting dormant, collecting dust rhinos (forget the bunnies...this is Texas), for the last several months. My mojo went on extended leave. Has that happened to any of you? Are there times--days, weeks, MONTHS when you just don't or can't bring yourself to create? I hit a horrible dry spell starting about September of last year and it lasted until about a week ago.

I was uninspired

unmotivated

non-creative

Blah.

But, I'm happy to say my prodigal mojo has FINALLY returned.

It's about darn time.

My cousin's daughter (does that make her my second cousin? or 1st cousin once removed?) is having a baby and her shower is Sunday. You know me...I don't buy presents. For starters--because I'm usually broke. And more importantly...because I'd rather create something myself. I decided to make another fleece baby blanket. And, with the leftover fleece, make a stuffed animal to match.

But then I remembered the HORROR I went through creating that stuffed bear for my cousin's baby a year and a half ago. You remember...and if you don't, here's a link to it

 Da Bear

I chose some really fun fabric with brightly-colored creatures (aliens, monsters...whatever). I made the blanket reversible with neon green on the flip side.

Well, I wasn't about to attempt another of THOSE (points to link above) bears. Never again. Besides, a bear really doesn't go well with the material I chose. I decided to make monsters. Guess what? Monsters are EASY. I made up a monster in my head, free-hand drew the pattern directly on the fleece, cut it out, and sewed it up, zip, pop, WE HAVE MONSTERS! SOooooooo cute.

Super soft, cuddly monsters!

The monster on the left I named Nom Nom...because he reminds me of the toothy character from the video game "Cut The Rope". His "teeth" are a strip of rick-rack that I sewed into a crease.

Nom Nom (extreme closeup)

The second monster I named Legz. The hat he's sporting in the top photo is actually a hat (complete with horns) that I made for the baby using some of the extra fabric. 

I found the pattern at FleeceFun.com. It was SUPER easy to make. I like that website...there are TONS of FREE patterns for all things fleece. Bookmark it, you won't be sorry. I specifically made Legz to fit the hat so that when the baby outgrows his hat, Legz can wear it. When you take Legz' hat off, you can see his "hair".

 

Legz (with and without his hat) 

The last "thing" I made is a soft rattle and crinkly noisemaker. I call him Sunny. I made the rattly part (inside) out of an empty lip balm jar. I filled it with little plastic beads and screwed its lid back on. Instant rattle mechanism. The crinkly part is in the handle...I cut up a cheapy plastic water bottle (the kind that totally collapses if you grab it even remotely firmly) and put in 2 strips of plastic that run the length of the handle so that when he (the baby) grabs it, it makes a really nice crinkly sound. The sun "rays" are made from giant rick-rack. I figure it will give him something to grab/chew on...mostly chew on. 

  Sunny the Rat (tle)

That completes the whole gifty kit and kaboodle. I think 5 gifts from one chunk of fleece is AMAZING, don't you? I have one small scrap left of the monster material...I wonder what else I could make?

Tomorrow I'm making a card to go with all this. I'll post it tomorrow. I'm also making a card for my mom to give. I'll post it too.

Ok, off to clean up my mess. Ciao for now.

Watch Out, Martha

I have been such a crafty diva this week!  I mean...Martha Stewart's got NOTHIN' on me. I started out the week making the baby blanket and stuffed bear for my cousin's baby shower. Then, I made 3 cards for her (one from me and my hubby...one from my mom and step dad...one from the whole extended family). If that weren't enough...I was in charge of making the cake. I promised y'all I'd post about the cake. So here it is.

I decided to try something new for the cake. Fearless I am--to try a new recipe... for the first time... at a party. But why not? I decided to make cake pops instead of a traditional sheet cake or cupcakes. I thought they'd be cute, unique, and portable. So, I scoured the internet for recipes on making cake pops. I found one that made sense so I used it.

In THEORY, cake pops are super easy to make.

• You bake a cake.
• Toss baked cake into bowl.
• Totally macerate the heck out of it until you've rendered it into crumbs.
• Mix in a LITTLE BIT of prepared frosting.
• Form into balls.
• Chill.
• Insert sticks.
• Dip in chocolate.
• Decorate.
• Done.

I enlisted the aid of my dear hubby, Jonathan. I ended up making about 60 cake pops, in 3 different flavors--lemon, chocolate, and confetti vanilla...so I could certainly utilize his cake-ball making skills. You add JUST ENOUGH frosting to the cake crumbs so they'll hold together. It's sort of like fluffy Playdoh. You do NOT want it as dense as real Playdoh. We set up an assembly line and each took turns scooping, forming, and placing the balls on a cookie sheet.

Jonathan making cake balls.

Naked cake pop balls

After we made all the balls, I set up my assembly/decorating supplies. Well, I say "set up"...I pretty much just dumped it all out on the table.

I decided I wanted them to look like little baby heads with bonnets made from muffin cups. I saw this on Pinterest and thought it would be uber cute. So I drew out various babyesque faces on a piece of paper to use as a reference when I painted them on the pops. After I got a dozen of them finished...I decided 12 was enough...the rest would just sit in the muffin cups with bows tied on them.

Hmmm, they actually look more like ghost pops at this point. Oh well...it's close enough to Halloween.

I used paste food coloring and hand-painted on their faces. NOTE* the food coloring NEVER dried (even overnight)...so I ended up having to blot off their faces before I assembled them the next morning.

Here is the end result, all set up at the party.

They look like babies now!

They were a HUGE hit! I must admit, they tasted FABULOUS and were just too cute!
 

Martha better watch her back...

Torrey's in da house!

Da Bear

So, my cousin Andrea is about to have her first baby. We're having her shower this weekend. I am in charge of the cake. I'll post about it...later in the week when I actually make it. For now, I'm posting about her shower gift.

I KNOW she's registered at Babies R Us,Target and Walmart. I KNOW there are things she NEEDS. But I just couldn't bring myself to BUY her shower gift. I figure, if I'm making the cake, and her card...I can sure as sunrise make her gift as well. It just sorta rounds out the Trifecta of creativity. For her gift, I decided to make her a polar fleece reversible baby blanket. The no-sew kind. Instead of a tied-fringe border, I opted for a braided border (actually it's crocheted, not braided). I think it looks neater. So I went to JoAnn's and bought the fleece. Andrea's doing the nursery in hot PANK. So, I found the PERFECT pattern--a black, hot pink and white patchwork of bold designs. After I finished the blanket, I had all this leftover fleece.

So, I got a wild hare (or is that bear) up my, um, backside and decided to make a stuffed bear toy with the remaining fabric. I found a really cute pattern online. At first glance I thought..."PIECE OF CAKE".  I printed off the pattern and pieced it out on the fabric. Easy peasy, right?

Problem is...I don't sew. The last stuffed animal I made was when I was 13. I was gonna dispose of it, quietly, but my mom snatched it from me claiming she "LOVED" it. Oy vay. Only a mom could love this. Before you ask...it's a rabbit. Really. Yeah, his nose came off. It was a pink pom pom.

Just look at this quality hand-stitching!

Can you believe I flunked the sewing part of Home Economics???

So, I thought now that I'm all grown up, maybe my sewing skills had finally come in--that I was, perhaps, a late sewing-bloomer. I had confidence that I could make a stuffed animal this time that actually looked like what it was supposed to be.

Then, I started looking at the directions.

The gal who made the pattern did provide illustrated (kind of) instructions. Well...sort of instructions. The lady who created the pattern is from Chile and her English--she is not so well. I give her credit though. She tried to write the instructions in English. But it was kind of like reading those instructions that come with chopsticks at a Chinese restaurant. That plus she skipped around and left out sections altogether.

Not helpful.

Thank goodness for my mom.

My mom waltzed into my studio this morning to find me sitting at my sewing machine, sighing heavily. I asked her if she would help me (she's a sewing guru...I am, not). Then we both started giggling at the thought of that sad little rabbit I made years ago.

Well...mom and I spent the ENTIRE day working on this silly bear. It went like this:

• I'd sew pieces together.
• I'd realize I had sewed them together wrong.
• I'd rip out the seams.
• I'd resew the pieces.
• I'd pin them in place.
• I'd stitch them together.
• I'd realize I had the arms on backward.
• I'd let out an exasperated scream.
• Mom would giggle.
• Mom cut out additional pattern pieces and laid them all out on the table.
• Mom would arrange the pattern pieces, rearrange them, visualize the arrangement.
• Mom would try to figure out how the heck the arm fit in the hole...then realized I had sewed them WRONG.
• More seam ripping.
• More screaming.
• More sewing.
•  ...
•  ...
•  ...

I finally got the sucker all assembled--LARGELY thanks to my mom's excellent sewing and spatial-relation skills. And when I finished...everything looked pretty good!! Most of the seams matched up. The angles of the limbs are close enough. Face is asymmetrical...but so is my face, so it's all good. I stuffed him and hand-stitched his neck closed. Then I tied a jaunty scarf around his neck just because.

Most important of all...it actually LOOKS like a bear. Whatya know.

Here he is sitting on top of the blanket I made. I really like him. I think Andrea will too! Will I ever consider going into the stuffed bear making business?

Not in this lifetime.